New petrol cars could cost £10,000 MORE to run than electric vehicles over lifetime, study says
This would cost owners nearly £10,000 over a petrol car's lifetime—and more if drivers keep their car for longer.
The majority of the cost difference is due to the price of fuel compared with charging an electric vehicle, but servicing and tax were also taken into account.
UK-based non-profit Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit (ECIU) arrived at the figure by comparing running costs for the top 10 selling petrol vehicles—such as the Vauxhall Corsa, Mini and Nissan Juke—with their electric equivalents.
Many drivers are still put off by the high upfront price of EVs and their cost of car insurance. NimbleFins research found that EV insurance typically costs around 13% more than a comparable petrol car—partly because electric vehicles are more expensive to repair and take longer to fix. That gap is narrowing, however, as the repair network grows and insurers gather more data on EV claims.
On the upside, EV prices are falling. Battery pack costs have dropped by around 90% since 2010, and by late 2025 the upfront price gap between new electric and petrol cars had already narrowed from around 33% to approximately 19%, according to Auto Trader data. On the second-hand market, the ECIU noted that price parity with petrol equivalents had effectively been reached by 2025—making EVs accessible to a far wider range of buyers than before.
NimbleFins has also reported how drivers can save around £600 a year in running costs by switching to an EV, primarily through lower fuel and tax bills—assuming home charging.
Note that from April 2025, EVs are no longer exempt from Vehicle Excise Duty. New zero-emission cars now pay £10 in their first year, then the standard rate of £195 a year—though this is still considerably less than many petrol models pay, particularly higher-emission vehicles.
ECIU head of transport Colin Walker said: "The day of EVs being playthings of the wealthy are long gone—they are already delivering savings of hundreds, even thousands, of pounds a year in ownership costs to households across the country, savings that are just going to get better and better as upfront sticker prices continue to fall. While price parity approaches for new EVs, it has already been reached on the second-hand market—where most of us buy our cars."
The Government's Zero Emission Vehicle (ZEV) mandate requires manufacturers to sell an increasing proportion of zero-emission cars each year—33% in 2026, rising to 80% by 2030 and 100% by 2035. Manufacturers that miss their targets face fines of £12,000 per non-compliant vehicle (reduced from £15,000 following a government review in April 2025), though a range of flexibilities—including credit banking, borrowing, and trading between manufacturers—means most are expected to comply without paying penalties.
The industry trade body SMMT has called for an urgent review of the mandate, warning that the targets were built on assumptions that have proved overly optimistic and that manufacturers spent more than £10bn in discounts over 2024 and 2025 trying to stimulate demand. The government has maintained that the transition is on track, pointing to provisional data showing manufacturers met their 2025 obligations through sales and flexibilities.
To help consumers make the switch, the government reintroduced an Electric Car Grant in 2024 offering up to £3,750 off the purchase price of eligible new EVs costing £37,000 or less—though currently only around a quarter of new EVs qualify. The RAC continues to push for VAT on public charging to be cut to match the 5% rate on home electricity, arguing that the current 20% rate penalises drivers without access to home charging—typically those in flats or terraced houses—and makes public charging far more expensive per mile than it needs to be.
Read more: